As fuel queues persist across Nigeria in early May 2024, a heated blame game has erupted between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and petroleum marketing associations over the root causes. With each side deflecting culpability, frustrated citizens are caught in the crossfire, anxiously awaiting relief at the pumps.
NNPC kicked off the battle of words by accusing certain “sharp practice” marketers of exploiting the tight supply situation through hoarding and panic-inducing price gouging to maximize profits. According to NNPC’s Femi Soneye, the company has over 1.5 billion liters of petrol in stock – enough for 30 days based on national demand. He insisted the lingering scarcity stemmed from hoarding by marketers and panic buying by motorists rather than an actual product shortage.
Marketing associations like IPMAN and MOMAN have fiercely pushed back on NNPC’s allegations of foul play by marketers. IPMAN leaders like Hammed Fashola and Chinedu Ukadike flatly denied claims that independent marketers were hoarding fuel, arguing it makes no business sense to hold back supply given the high cost of procurement, bank charges, and emphasis on maximizing sales volumes. MOMAN’s Clement Isong also played down NNPC’s allegations of “sharp practices” by marketers as an oversimplified explanation.
Instead, the marketers insist NNPC’s supposed ample supply numbers don’t match the reality of inadequate distribution they’re dealing with on the ground. They claim logistical bottlenecks, not nefarious actions by marketers, are the real culprits behind the shortages. Unless NNPC can facilitate smoother product flows to their retail stations, the marketers argue they’ll simply keep running dry, leading to the inevitable lines and closures.
With both sides talking past each other by trading accusations, Nigerian citizens suffer the consequences of potential solutions being lost in the din of fingerpointing. Nearly one month into the lingering scarcity, frustrations and hardships are mounting rapidly as economic productivity grinds to a halt amidst the queues for fuel. The human costs are immense, from lost income opportunities and financial devastation to family disruptions and increased crime around restless filling stations.
A similar war of words erupted during fuel shortages under previous administrations when NNPC made comparable claims about being flush with product undermined by hoarding and diversion. Yet the queues persisted for months. Both sides need to quickly move beyond the blame game and embrace an spirit of collaborative problem-solving this time around.
On NNPC’s part, simply waving around high stock numbers is unconvincing without taking true accountability for efficiently delivering that supply to retail pumps. Their promises of ending the scarcity by certain dates ring hollow each time those timelines are missed. Concrete logistical solutions, not arbitrary deadlines, are needed.
The marketers too cannot absolve themselves entirely. While outright hoarding may not be the predominant issue, if a subset of bad actors are hoarding or diverting portions of available supply, that exacerbates already strained logistics. Ruthless enforcement through audits and sanctions for confirmed cases of diversion or hoarding is required to maintain integrity in the distribution chain.
Critically, enhanced transparency is required from all parties for public trust to be restored. NNPC should provide detailed real-time data on its stocks, refining output, imports, distribution plans and supply deliveries to marketing depots rather than just blanket national inventory claims. Marketers should reciprocate by opening their books on costs and margins to outline reasonable pricing and working capital needs.
An independent regulatory audit overseen by the NMDPRA seems paramount to unravel the conflicting claims over culpability for the scarcity. Judging from past incidents, both NNPC and marketers may share some blame warranting course corrections, from NNPC’s distribution lapses to illicit retailer practices. But a fair, objective assessment is needed first.
Ultimately, citizens should not be spectators to such protracted industry battles that descend into messy public exchanges. The fuel supply crisis is now a major economic and humanitarian emergency transcending commercial tensions. Government must take a stronger crisis leadership role in steering all stakeholders towards an urgent collaborative national solution.
This is where the new Tinubu administration will be truly tested in its ability to rise above partisan politics and factionalism. Mineral Resources Minister Dele Alake and Petroleum Regulator Ayo Cardoso should exert more direct interventionist oversight to diagnose the bottlenecks and enforce strict compliance from all parties. President Tinubu himself should not hesitate to convene an emergency fuel summit bringing NNPC leadership, marketers associations, regulators, labor and civic representatives into the same room to hash out a resolution.
Nigerians displayed incredible patience and resolve in the months after Tinubu’s election awaiting the “Renewed Hope” of economic revival promised by the new administration. But that patience is being stretched dangerously thin by a fuel scarcity crisis that has spiraled out of control and now threatens the foundation of that economic renewal. Finger-pointing has only poured fuel on the fire of public frustration.
With the right leadership focusing stakeholders on practical problem-solving rather than blame games, this crisis can hopefully be resolved sooner rather than later. But first, an honest reckoning on the true underlying factors causing the scarcity – from operational lapses to regulatory failures to market manipulations – is required before the accusations give way to actual accountability and transparent remedies that bring long-overdue relief to the pumps.
Nigerians have suffered enough from this vicious cycle of fuel scarcities. Failure to secure a lasting solution from the combined efforts of NNPC, marketers, regulators, and government will represent a shattering loss of faith in the new administration’s ability to steward Nigeria towards the prosperous Renewed Hope that millions invested their hopes in just one year ago.
Reference
NNPC, marketers in war of words over fuel scarcity published in Punch